Tag Archives: mythos 101

Tyr is a god of war from the Norse pantheon. He’s associated with the Tîwaz rune—an arrow pointing upward. Warriors would often inscribe this rune on their weapons prior to battle, hoping to gain his favor. He also loses a hand to Fenrir, one of Loki’s children.

Prior to the Norse and their ancestors converting to Christianity, this would have been a God warriors and vikings would have honored. Some of these honors included blood, meat, and mead.

At this time, his importance in my writing is minimal, but he’s an interesting god where little is known of him outside the . In Tempest, this is the god William secretly prays to, even though he fights for the Holy Roman Empire. While he doesn’t play a large role, he would’ve been a popular god for those warriors still following the Norse religion of their ancestors.

Welcome to my Mythos 101.

The Jumlin and the inheritor

Inheritors could walk among us according to Native American lore, (specifically the Lakota Sioux, Cherokee, and Black Foot Nations) and we cannot spot one. Freaky thought if you know where they came from and what they are.

Stephanie Meyer wasn’t too far off when she spoke of legends passed down about blood drinkers. There is a legend that many tribes told. From generation to generation this tale has passed down, but like most tales no one wrote it down. There are five known versions of the tale; all versions are similar in naming the evil spirit, why he’s summoned, and what he produces.

The Lore

It begins with a shaman medicine man and his wife who have no male children. Laughing Sky is barren, but the medicine man doesn’t want to take another wife. He pled to the Gods, vowing to disobey all laws if he didn’t have a son.

The medicine man keeping his vow used the forbidden magic to open a portal to the spirit realm. Jumlin—an evil spirit–tricks the medicine man into freeing him, promising him many children as part of the bargain. The medicine man agrees, and the Jumlin takes over his body, mind, and heart.

Jumlin bred, killed, and drank the blood of others. He strengthened with each death, feeding and slaughtering the bravest and toughest braves. Still the Jumlin wasn’t satisfied and he moved onto the women, controlling their minds as he fed on their bodies.

The inheritor

Men of the tribe journeyed far, learning of how to control and end the Jumlin-medicine man. During their absence Laughing Sky kindled, growing large yet weak in the later term of her pregnancy. After the baby arrived, she fell into childbed fever. Jumlin destroyed her and then feasted on the leader of the braves wishing to end his life.

Jumlin stole away with his son, other children he’d fathered, and women one night. He spread the women and children among other villages until only he and his son—Laughing Bear—remained. As the years progressed father and son traveled between the villages, taking blood, and planting their seeds until one evening Jumlin victimized a chief’s daughter.

Using magic, the hunters banded together and destroyed Jumlin, but Laughing Bear escaped. They say he and his children still live among us today for the braves, hunters, medicine men, and elders couldn’t distinguish if the children were inhibitors.

What does an inheritor look like?

They appeared human, lived as humans, and ate human food. Some wonder if this myth is the true start of the vampiric legends. Like most myths there is a lesson in this tale and I take it to mean to be careful what you wish for and if it’s too good to be true, it probably has strings attached.

In the end, the Native American people were able to imprison the Jumlin but not before generations of his children walked the earth. Because they couldn’t tell them apart from regular children, the people could not kill them. Some say they walk this earth to this day.

Variations of this myth exist, but the interesting part with this myth is that it predates all other vampire myths, and that the Jumlin wasn’t a crazed man or a disease, but an evil spirit set free by using an ancient form of ritualistic magic.

Do you think they could walk among us? Or was this another classic Native American tale told solely to teach a lesson?